Catch a Fire
March 2007 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

It's odd to think that a movie set in 1980 can have a topical political message to deliver today, but Catch a Fire does just that.

Set in South Africa during apartheid, Catch a Fire is the tale of Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke), a foreman at a large oil refinery. When anti-apartheid forces of the African National Congress bomb the refinery, Patrick is suspected of being involved and is handed over to anti-terrorism officer Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) for interrogation.

The movie then follows Patrick's life after he is released, but instead of pursuing these moral issues, it turns into a surface-level political thriller, much in the vein of director Phillip Noyce's two Tom Clancy films, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. A deeper look at the situation, a la Noyce's The Quiet American, would have been preferable.

What makes one a terrorist and how far society is willing to go to feel safe are themes that will resonate today when news broadcasts are filled with discussions of Guantánamo Bay. Derek Luke does a good job as Patrick, though the script does seem to make a few big jumps that leave the audience scrambling to follow his character arc. Tim Robbins, however, fails to stand out as Vos. Although the role is nuanced, Robbins is a better actor than this.

The sound is solid, but unspectacular. Everything comes through clearly, and it opens at the appropriate times for explosions and rally scenes, but overall it feels a little bit flatter than it should. Good, but could be better. The picture quality steps things up, wonderfully re-creating the warm amber tones of the country. Colors are vibrant and the blacks are thick, so even when the movie is hard to watch, it is easy to look at.

The extras are sparse. We get three deleted scenes that would have added nothing to the proceedings, and a commentary track that seems to be unrelated to what is on the screen. The commentary sounds more like separate "making of" interviews that have been spliced together. However, since one of the participants is the real Patrick Chamusso, it is worth listening to, to find out which parts of the movie are taken from real life and which have been fabricated.

Catch a Fire was largely ignored when it was in theaters last year, but given the warm reception that the somewhat similar Blood Diamond has received, it may get another chance. It is a bit one-sided, since none of the bad stuff is committed by the African National Congress, but such is the artistic license of filmmaking. Give this a rental, and see what modern parallels you can draw.

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